The History of Oreo's!

Oreo's are one of America's favorite cookies. Who doesn't like them? Oreo's actually have a very fascinating history, and today I will be discussing just that!

Oreo's are actually supposedly a knock off the Hydrox cookie, which looks almost like an exact copy of the Oreo. Usually, people think that the Hydrox cookie is a knockoff of the Oreo, but the Hydrox cookie actually came first. Hydrox cookies were introduced in 1908 by Sunshine Biscuit company, a company owned by Joseph Loose, Jacob Loose, and John H Wiles.
Below is a picture of the Hydrox cookie, and an advertisement.

In 1890, Adolphus Green acquired a large number of bakeries joined together to form the American Biscuit company. in 1898, the American Biscuit company merged with even more bakeries to form the National Biscuit Company, now known as Nabisco.
The Oreo was created in 1912 by the National Biscuit Company, now known as Nabisco. The factory was located on 9th Avenue between 15 and 16th streets. This road is now known as "Oreo Way". 

The first Oreo was sold on March 6, 1912 to a grocer from Hoboken, New Jersey. On March 14, 1912 a patent was applied for and was not registered until August 2, 1913. In case you were wondering, the patent number was #0093009. In 1913, the Oreo was officially named the Oreo Biscuit.

 Although they were sold indivudually for about a month, on April 2, 1912 Nabisco announced that they would be releasing a trio of biscuits. The trio included the Mother Goose Biscuit, the Veronese Biscuit, and the Oreo Biscuit. The Mother Goose and the Veronese Biscuit did not sell well, but the Oreo sold well and eventually the other two biscuits were discontinued and the Oreo Biscuit was sold indivudually. Also, in 1920, a lemon filled Oreo was briefly introduced, but did not fare well and was discontinued not long after. In 1921 the name was changed to the Oreo Sandwich. The name was also changed to Oreo Creme Sandwich at one point, but I could not find the exact year this name change took place, but it was most likely in the 1940's.

Oreo's were originally sold in yellow tins, like these, for approximately 20-30 cents a pound.

The first design of the Oreo looked like this.

In 1924, the design was changed to this.

Then, in 1952, William A Turner designed the last change to the Oreo cookie. It has been the same since.

Below are some advertisements and old Oreo packaging.

An ad for the "Mother Goose Biscuit" introduced by Nabisco in 1912 as part of the "Trio", which was discussed above. I could not find an ad for the Veronese biscuit, also part of the Trio.

More Oreo advertisements



Thanks for reading!

Depression Glass Shard Identification #2- Cobalt Blue Aurora Bowl Shard

I dug this shard up a few weeks ago. 

It belonged to either one of these cobalt depression glass bowls

I have only dug up several cobalt blue depression glass shards, so this one was special. I did some research, and figured out that this belonged to a depression glass bowl. The pattern is Aurora. Aurora was produced by Hazel Atlas. The exact date of production is unknown, and is estimated to be produced from the late 1930's through the very early 1940s. Blue is the most common color, although pieces in green, pink, and crystal also turn up occasionally, but not as often. According to Gene Florence's Depression Glass book and the Hazel Atlas website, not many pieces of Aurora were produced. Gene Florence's book lists the below to be the only available pieces.

6 1/2 inch plate

4 1/2 inch milk pitcher (often confused as a creamer)

Cup and saucer

4 3/4 inch tumbler, 10 ounces

4 1/2 deep bowl

5 1/2 deep bowl (cereal)

Here are some pictures of the above Aurora pieces

As always, thanks for reading!

Estate Sale Finds- 11/26/16

I went to one estate sale yesterday. I bought some more depression glass for my collection, and a vintage pharmacy bottle. Below are the pictures

4 Green Depression Glass Tumblers



Patrician "Spoke" Large Green Berry Bowl (Federal Glass Company 1933-1937)







Vintage Walgreens Pharmacy Bottle with original contents! Paraffin oil!

Digging Finds

I've started the process of identifying my shards and bottles from my most recent dig.
Here's what I've found so far!

Stoneware Shard

This shard belongs to a crock or jug like these two I found online


California Fig Syrup Bottle Shard

This shard belonged to a bottle like this one


Here are some old ads for California Fig Syrup that I found online




Higgins Ink Bottle, 3/4 oz size


The original bottle looked something like this


Tournades Kitchen Bouquet Bottle


The original bottle packaging would look somewhat like this. I couldn't find any bottles with original labeling, just a package.

Here is an advertisement for the bottle and a nice crate I found



Amazing find-Heinz Tomato Ketchup Bottle with original labelling!
There is a certain spot in my dump that produces bottles with original labelling, still intact! Here is one of them, a generic Heinz bottle. It's kind of hard to see, but if you look close enough you can make it out!

An original Heinz Tomato Ketchup bottle like this one would like like this


Here's another labelled bottle, some sort of sauce, probably a chili sauce bottle based on the shape of the bottle and the "C" on the label.


Chili Sauce bottles were usually shaped somewhat like this



Nice Milk Glass Cold Cream Jar


Tiny Milk Glass Cold Cream Jar!


Green Hazel Atlas Depression Glass Berry Bowl Shard
The Hazel Atlas mark was visible on the bottom, making identification easier for me

The original bowl would have looked somewhat like this


Egg Cup Shard

I believe this is either the bottom or the top to a double egg cup, like this one

This particular egg is cup is plain. Egg cups came in different patterns and sizes, like these



Milk Glass Pitcher Shard

The original would have looked somewhat like this, but without the band. I could not find  a matching picture without the band


Royal Ironstone China Chamberpot Shard

The original would have looked like this



More Shards and Relics
I found some interesting and beautiful shards. The ones pictured below have not been identified yet, but they were too pretty not to post!




Thanks for reading!